Christian divorce and remarriage

[Nooj]

1. Please explain when divorce is allowed in Christianity, with Biblical evidence.
2. As far as I have studied the NT, I cannot find one instance where a spouse that suffers abuse is allowed to divorce. Do you agree with my conclusion?
3. When is remarriage allowed?

Danke.

 

[winsome]

1. Please explain when divorce is allowed in Christianity, with Biblical evidence.
2. As far as I have studied the NT, I cannot find one instance where a spouse that suffers abuse is allowed to divorce. Do you agree with my conclusion?
3. When is remarriage allowed?

Danke.

You will find that different Christian churches have different views on this. I will try to give you the Catholic one but I’m not an expert.

Basically the Catholic Church says that divorce is not allowed, with one exception. This is known as the Pauline Privilege and is based on 1Cor 7:12-16

To the rest I say—I and not the Lord—that if any believer has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her. 13And if any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him. 14For the unbelieving husband is made holy through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy through her husband. Otherwise, your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. 15But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so; in such a case the brother or sister is not bound. It is to peace that God has called you. 16Wife, for all you know, you might save your husband. Husband, for all you know, you might save your wife

Paul is saying here that if two non-Christians are married and one becomes a Christian then if the non-Christian is content to continue living with their converted spouse then the marriage stands. But if the non-Christian spouse leaves the converted spouse Paul says they can divorce and the Christian remarry.

However the Catholic Church does allow annulments. Some people say this is just divorce by the back door, but that is not so. Marriage is a sacrament, graced by God. Those who commit to this should freely enter in to it with a proper understanding of what they are committing to. If on after searching investigation the Church decides that the original consent was not valid then it says the marriage never existed in the first place and the two people are free to marry. Some examples of invalid consent would be:
-a forced marriage
-one person hid a serious personal defect from the other (e.g. mental illness, serious violent behaviour in the past, drug addiction) such that the other would not have married them if they had known.

 

[Nooj]

Thank you for your post. If Paul allowed a divorce in the case of an unbeliever abandoning a believer, could a divorce also apply for a believer abandoning a believer? I know it's an extrapolation from the text, but it makes sense to me.

 

[winsome]

Thank you for your post. If Paul allowed a divorce in the case of an unbeliever abandoning a believer, could a divorce also apply for a believer abandoning a believer? I know it's an extrapolation from the text, but it makes sense to me.

No it would not apply. This seems to have been a special exception. And my reading is it was only when the abondonment was a direct result of one spouse becoming a Christian. So I would assume that if they lived happily for several years and then the non-chistian spouse left because, for example, he/she found someone else it would not apply.

 

[Nooj]

Will the Catholic Church marry a previously divorced person?

 

[winsome]

Will the Catholic Church marry a previously divorced person?

Not unless they can get an annulment of their previous marriage. A divorce is a civil action and does not affect the Catholic Church's view of whether someone is married or not. But if a divorced person had their previous marriage annulled by the Church then the Church would consider them free to marry.

 

[Radagast]

If Paul allowed a divorce in the case of an unbeliever abandoning a believer, could a divorce also apply for a believer abandoning a believer?

No, because Paul would expect a believing husband or wife to follow the Church's guidance on how they should behave, and reconcile. There's the famous example of the man who told his pastor "I don't love my wife anymore" and received the reply "The Bible tells us to love our wife (Ephesians 5:25,28), to love our neighbour (Matthew 22:39), and to love our enemy (Luke 6:27), and at least one of those applies here."

Of course, if someone abandons their husband/wife and does not listen to the Church, then they are effectively abandoning the Church as well, and have to be considered as an unbeliever (i.e. they would be excommunicated).

If the abandonment involves an affair, Matthew 19:9 applies (I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery).

As to abuse, I would interpret that as abandoning the marriage vows (1 Corinthians 7:15: But if the unbeliever leaves, let him do so. A believing man or woman is not bound in such circumstances; God has called us to live in peace). Some people call this "constructive desertion," and view it as part of the "flip side" of Matthew 19:9.

The other relevant passage for abuse is 1 Peter 3:7 (Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers), which refers of course to the fact that women are generally physically weaker (Greek ἀσθενεστέρ&#8179 than their husbands. And of course, husbands are told in the Bible to love their wives as Christ loved the Church (Ephesians 5:25). An abusive husband (on top of everything else) shows a contempt for Christ that's difficult to reconcile with true belief.